2000/08/25 by W. Hänsel, Hänsel, W., Jakob Reichel +7
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #quant-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0008111
4 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett
arxiv created 2000/08/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We demonstrate an integrated magnetic ``atom chip'' which transports cold trapped atoms near a surface with very high positioning accuracy. Time-dependent currents in a lithographic conductor pattern create a moving chain of magnetic potential wells; atoms are transported in these wells while remaining confined in all three dimensions. We achieve fluxes up to 106 /s with a negligible heating rate. An extension of this ``atomic conveyor belt'' allows the merging of magnetically trapped atom clouds by unification of two Ioffe-Pritchard potentials. Under suitable conditions, the clouds merge without loss of phase space density. We demonstrate this unification process experimentally.